NEHALEM, ME -- It was a standing ovation moment for local conservation icon Neal Maine as he received the first annual Ferdun Conservation Award at Lower Nehalem Community Trust's 7th annual Living Locally gala on June 7, 2014.

The award, established by the LNCT board in honor of Gareth and Georgenne Ferdun, two of the organization's dedicated founders who retired from the board earlier this year, was created to illuminate local citizens who have given significantly of their time and vision to the work of land conservation in the Nehalem region.

Along with many in the room that evening who have been touched by Neal's passion for land conservation, award presenter Lane deMoll (also a founder of LNCT) shared many stories of the way Neal has impacted people's lives.

Of those quoted by Lane, there was unanimous agreement that Neal Maine was their mentor—some by design, others by chance. As a high school biology teacher in Seaside, Oregon for 31 years Neal interacted with hundreds of students and affected the lives of several who have gone on to either careers in environmental fields or to have a relationship with the natural world that shapes their life experience.

"Neal saved my life," said restoration ecologist Doug Ray. Ray, one of Neal's students at Seaside High School in the 70s describes himself as a "non-traditional" student who struggled with a structured learning environment. "Neal saw this in me and he also saw the spark that nature flamed and took me out of the classroom and into the natural world. To this day, I use the lessons perfectly designed for my way of understanding and delivered so patiently by Neal. All of this has lead to the work I do everyday on behalf of the environment."

And Doug Ray underscored it all by sharing "beware, time spent with Neal Maine will change your life."

Katie Voelke, executive director of North Coast Land Conservancy, the organization that Neal founded in 1986, could not agree more.

"I remember the day I had an appointment with Neal so he could answer my questions about anadromous fish. Instead of talking about fish, we talked about everything. As it turned out, everything I talked about he was interested in and everything he talked about I was interested in. At the end of that day he offered me a job and I felt like the luckiest person in the world."

After seven years at the helm of NCLC, Katie still feels like the luckiest person in the world. "Neal will always be my mentor. I continue to learn from him and use his lessons every day in the way I do my job, the way I deal with people and the way I see nature."

Eugene-based writer Bonnie Henderson, met Neal through her brother Randall and joined them on a river trip on the John Day. "Neal is so humble and so broadly inclusive. So one day on the river, off the top of his head Neal pointed to a bird and said, we think of birds like that as all being the same, but they are individuals just as much as we are – that statement stopped me in my tracks and forever changed my perspective. Hanging out with Neal unhinged me and steered me."

"As a writer, Neal speaks my language. He is both a poet as well as a biologist. As a result of my friendship with Neal I now have a relationship to nature that has allowed me to write passionately about the topic inspired by Neal's broad vision for conservation. Neal is unlike any other conservationist I have ever known."

Gareth and Georgenne Ferdun, for whom the award is named and who presented the award to Neal, shared about his skills as a land negotiator and talented photographer.

"Not only was Neal a strong supporter of our efforts to launch LNCT, but he was able to negotiate some transfers of local property that I see as a major accomplishment for our watershed," said Gareth.

Georgenne added, "Neal has a way of inspiring people with the beauty and the knowledge of the natural world in our area – it makes so much different in conservation work. He loves the land and the creatures that live on it and shares that in his interactions, presentations and photography."

Presenting this award "not only allows us to publically honor Neal as a recipient, but also becomes a way to inspire others to keep this work going," Georgenne added.

The "award" presented to Neal was a collaborative and locally-inspired fine-craft piece. The hand-thrown pottery bowl was created by LNCT's chair Allan Olson and features calligraphy carved by Denise Clausen, a professional artist/calligrapher and resident of Sandlake in South Tillamook County.

"It was an honor to collaborate with Denise, to create the symbol that carries the spirit of this award," said Allan. "We congratulate Neal and hope that he will take the honor to heart as he continues to inspire us all in this work."

Humble by trade, when asked to speak about receiving his award, Neal did offer some of the secrets to his success.

"As a teacher, when I finally understood that people weren't going to school to get ready for something, they were going to school to have meaningful life experiences, well, that was the moment that I pushed my desk in the waste basket and started over," said Maine. "If nature is going to be part of your life, then it has to become part of your life and that means more than having taken a course in science."

If Neal has an agenda, it is quality of life for all coastal citizens and having resources that function well – significantly increasing the quality of all residents of the coast.

"The best way to interact with people and to have quality dialogue with them about this topic is to offer full respect for their ideas, find common ground and start from there," said Maine.

"Along with people, I have unending respect for nature – something that has taken a few million years to stack up. Understanding how it functions and works gives one the best possible opportunity to be a part of it. In my new adventure, the art photography business, I am able to communicate visually and portray these nuances to a broad audience."

"I'm bad at this award business because I worry about concentrating the focus on single individuals, given that we are all riding on the same train here. If the award helps advance the cause, then I go along with it and keep it focused, in this case, on the Ferduns and their values – I honor them for what they have helped to establish."

Neal went on to share about his new adventure – the creation of a "road show" he calls "The Art of Seeing." This visual presentation of Neal's photography is designed to be shown to groups of any size, in any locale, as a pathway to find new connections to help support environmental sustainability on the North Coast.

"In general, I am focusing on trying to have the photography communicate more than a picture of an animal and begin to expose folks to some of the natural resource thoughts and to see things in a new way."

"I don't have the answers, I'm just telling the truth as I experience it and want to get people ready for what's next so we can move conservation even further in our communities."

As a reciprocal gesture that evening, Neal gifted the Ferduns with a specially-chosen photo from thousands of his nature-based images. The photo of two eagles on the beach was selected as a symbol of his respect for what the Ferduns have helped to create and their inspiration to others.

"In coming years the LNCT board will solicit nominations for The Ferdun Conservation Award," said LNCT's executive director Dale Cramer Burr. "We hope the creation of this award will inspire more citizens to engage in the natural world and to those already working for the environment to know that they are part of the spirit of it all."

About Lower Nehalem Community Trust

Lower Nehalem Community Trust, a 501(c)(3), nonprofit, membership organization has been preserving and stewarding land in the Lower Nehalem region since 2002. Its programs include land conservation and stewardship, nature education, community garden and orchard and advocacy. For more information about LNCT, call (503) 368-3203, visit our website or stop by the office at 532 Laneda Avenue, Suite C in downtown Manzanita.

WASHINGTON, DC – Jay Espy, executive director of the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation, and former president of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, was announced today as the recipient of the Land Trust Alliance’s prestigious Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award. Espy was selected for the award for the way he has pioneered a collaborative approach to land conservation, set the trend for other land trusts, made an impact across the land conservation movement, and has served as a mentor. Espy is the fifth recipient of this honor awarded by the Land Trust Alliance to recognize outstanding leadership, innovation and creativity in land conservation.

Espy was also named to serve in the Kingsbury Browne Fellowship at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy for 2010. In his role in this fellowship, named after Boston attorney Kingsbury Browne (1922-2005), Espy will engage in researching, writing and mentoring associated with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a Cambridge-based think-tank with a focus on land policy.

Both awards were presented in Hartford, Connecticut at the Land Trust Alliance’s Rally 2010: The National Land Conservation Conference, the largest annual gathering of professional and volunteer conservation leaders in the US.

“Having invested more than twenty years in the effort to conserve land on a large scale, I am proud to have shared in the successful conservation of thousands of acres of our cherished landscapes," Espy said. "I am honored to be a part of a wonderful community of people from all walks of life, willing to stand up and work together to conserve land that fosters healthy communities for all to enjoy for generations."

Rand Wentworth, president of the Land Trust Alliance, said: “Jay is a generous leader and philanthropist who has an amazing ability to see beyond the local level, and impart a vision for a larger good. In his role at the land trust, he gathered collaborators through the Maine Land Trust Network to conserve land on a much larger scale." Wentworth added, "With more than 125,000 acres protected by their partnership efforts, Jay was vital to keeping everyone focused and engaged in the long-term process which bore an immense conservation legacy."

Espy joined the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation as its first executive director in January 2008. The Sewall Foundation is a private, grant making foundation focusing on conservation, animal welfare and social needs, primarily in Maine. For the prior two decades, Jay served as president of Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a statewide land conservation organization. During his tenure, Maine Coast Heritage Trust accelerated its land protection efforts along Maine’s entire coast, conserving more than 125,000 acres and establishing the Maine Land Trust Network, which helps build capacity of local land trusts throughout Maine. He also led the Trust’s successful Campaign for the Coast, raising more than $100 million for conservation and doubling the amount of protected land on Maine’s coast and islands.

Espy is a graduate of Bowdoin College and holds Master’s degrees from the Yale School of Management and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He serves on the boards of the Maine Philanthropy Center and the Canadian Land Trust Alliance, and is a former chair of the Land Trust Alliance, a national organization serving land trusts throughout the United States.

Kingsbury Browne and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy had a long history together. In 1980, as a fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Browne first envisioned a network of land conservation trusts, and convened conservation leaders through the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, which ultimately led to the formation of the national Land Trust Exchange (later renamed the Land Trust Alliance) in 1982. Browne is considered the father of America’s modern land trust movement, a network of land trusts operating in every state of the nation. Together these land trusts have conserved more than 37 million acres, an area the size of New England.The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy began the Kingsbury Browne Fellowship in association with the Land Trust Alliance offering its first Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award in 2006. Winners are chosen from a group of their peers, honoring lifetime contributions to the field of land conservation and work reflecting the values that Kingsbury Browne brought to his own seminal achievements.

Armando Carbonell, senior fellow and chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute, said he looked forward to having Jay Espy serve as the Kingsbury Browne Fellow, as his expertise can enhance many ongoing initiatives in regional collaboration and development.

About The Lincoln Institute of Land PolicyThe Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy. As a private operating foundation, whose origins date to 1946, we seek to inform decision-making through education, research, policy evaluation, demonstration projects, and the dissemination of information, policy analysis, and data through publications, our Web site, and other media. By bringing together scholars, practitioners, public officials, policymakers, journalists and involved citizens, the Lincoln Institute integrates theory and practice and provides a nonpartisan forum for multidisciplinary perspectives on public policy concerning land, both in the U.S. and internationally. Land conservation is a major theme of the Institute’s Department of Planning and Urban Form, chaired by Armando Carbonell.

About The Land Trust AllianceThe Alliance is a national conservation organization that works in three ways to save the places people love. First, we increase the pace of conservation, so more land and natural resources get protected. Second, we enhance the quality of conservation, so the most important lands get protected using the best practices in the business. And third, we ensure the permanence of conservation by creating the laws and resources needed to defend protected land over time. The Land Trust Alliance is based in Washington, D.C., and has several regional offices. Visit www.landtrustalliance.org.

Photos: Available on request, contact: Nancy Grace Lowenberg, YLT Dir. of Development and Communications, 207-363-7400, nglowenberg@yorklandtrust.org

$1 million Federal Award Advances Conservation of York River

240 acres including one mile of York River shoreline purchased.

York, ME - York Land Trust (YLT), and the Mt. Agamenticus to the Sea conservation partners (MtA2C) announce the protection of an ecologically significant property on the York River in York, ME. In 2005, aided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Gulf of Maine Program, the partners made a “federal case” for supporting York River conservation and won a million dollar North American Wetlands Conservation Act* (NAWCA) award. It was recently used to purchase 240 acres of pristine saltmarsh, shorelands, field and forested uplands from the Davis family, one or York’s founding families and long time supporters of community conservation.

“Our family settled this land in the 1600’s and lived on it continuously until 1963, when our great aunt Alice R. McIntire died and our mother Mary McIntire Davis inherited the land. Before her death, it was our mother’s fondest wish that the land remain undeveloped and in it’s natural state in-perpetuity. We believe conveying the land to the good stewards of the York Land Trust will ensure our mother’s legacy and provide for the enjoyment of the citizens and visitors of York. My brothers, Dan and Jim, and I are pleased to be able to continue our family’s affiliation with the York Land Trust,” said Mal Davis.

“We are grateful to the Davis Family for working with us to protect this spectacular property and for their generosity in selling the land for less than its market value, as a donation to the York Land Trust. The success of the project was due in part to this important gift, said Doreen MacGillis, Executive Director of York Land Trust. “In addition, the value of a partially donated conservation easement to Maine Coast Heritage Trust by the Delano family on a 390-acre parcel on Gerrish Island in Kittery last year provided critical match necessary to secure the federal NAWCA grant.”

The NAWCA proposal was a rigorous process that focused national attention on the York River System’s distinctive preservation arguments including 1) that the River’s estuary, shoreland and contiguous forested uplands provide priority habitat for 100 types of waterbirds, or nearly every species regularly seen in the entire Atlantic Flyway, 2) that conserving the lands connected to the River and its source wetlands and streams protects many non-bird species including half of the entire possible diversity for estuarine fishes in Maine, rare turtles, amphibians, invertebrates, and mammals, and 3) that the rich marshes of the York River comprise one of the largest intact coastal wetland areas in southern Maine. Project leader Stewart Fefer with the USFWS Gulf of Maine Program said, “This York River project protects forever a diversity of nationally significant coastal wetland habitats for fish, wildlife and people. We are delighted to have been able to assist in this important conservation partnership.”

According to aquatic biologist Michele Dionne, PhD. director of research at the Wells Reserve (WNERR), “from harbor to headwaters, the York River, an exemplary New England coastal watershed has retained an impressive degree of ecological integrity. The ecology of the River is directly connected to the ecology of its surrounding landscape. If the shorelands lose their natural functions, so do the brooks, streams, creeks and channels of the watershed and estuary. As an aquatic scientist, I greatly appreciate the timely and critically important work of the Mt A to the Sea Coalition in protecting the lands that protect the River. As a local resident, I understand the depth of commitment required to pursue this far-from-simple mission. As a parent, I am truly grateful for the Coalition's growing natural legacy - a gift beyond measure to us all.

This is one of 45 projects, representing a total of 2,746 acres that the Mt. Agamenticus to the Sea Coalition has completed since its inception in 2002. (Conservation lands map attached)

* The North American Waterfowl Management Plan, established to conserve our continent’s remaining wetlands and increase migratory bird populations, is funded with appropriations from the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA). Grants made through the NAWCA Large Grants Program are used for permanent protection and/or restoration projects nationwide that benefit migratory birds, with a strong emphasis on waterbirds, federally endangered species and wetlands.

Background

The York Land Trust, founded in 1986 is a private, member-supported, not-for-profit organization dedicated to conserving and protecting lands of ecological, scenic, agricultural, and educational significance in the greater York area. For more information about the York Land Trust, please visit us online at www.yorklandtrust.org.

Mt. Agamenticus to the Sea conservation initiative is a ten-member coalition of federal and state governmental agencies; national and regional land protection organizations, and three southern Maine land trusts. The goal is to conserve a mosaic of critical lands, waterways and working landscapes in the six-town area between the Tatnic Hills of Wells and Gerrish Island in Kittery Point. Working together, the partners of the MtA2C Conservation Initiative are protecting both community values and environmental health across a project area spanning 48,000 acres in southernmost Maine. For more information, visit www.mtatosea.org.

Association Recognized for Innovation in Media and Publishing

Presented with two 2009 EXCEL Awards

Washington, DC—The Land Trust Alliance is being honored by the Society of National Association Publications (SNAP) at its 29th Annual EXCEL Awards, which recognize the best and the brightest in association media and publishing.

As one of 181 winners selected from nearly 1,000 entries, the Alliance is being presented a Gold Award in the Magazines: Most Improved category and a Gold Award in the Magazines: Redesign category (submitted by Bates Creative Group) for taking bold chances and delivering excellence in the association industry.

“Congratulations to the Land Trust Alliance, one of the recipients of our EXCEL Awards,” said Amy Lestition, CAE, SNAP’s executive director, “These publications demonstrate the importance of conveying content in a variety of formats to our constituents. Bravo to the publication and media association professionals for their mastery of the field.”

“We went through a rigorous redesign process and this is a wonderful affirmation of our success,” said Chris Soto, editor of Saving Land, the winning magazine of the Alliance.

The Land Trust Alliance will be honored and celebrated at the 29th EXCEL Awards Gala on June 4, 2009. Award-winning entries are displayed at the EXCEL Awards Gala and are featured in the July/ August issue of Association Publishing. The Alliance may also be a winner of the distinguished EXTRA! Awards—presented to associations pushing the edge of the envelope further to innovate in an ever-changing publishing environment—which will be announced at the EXCEL Awards Gala in June. For more information on the Association Media and Publishing Conference and the EXCEL Awards Gala, visit www.snaponline.org.

About the Land Trust Alliance: The Land Trust Alliance is a national conservation group that works on behalf of America’s 1,700 land trusts to save the places people love by strengthening conservation throughout America. The Alliance works to increase the pace and quality of conservation by advocating favorable tax policies, training land trusts in best practices and working to ensure the permanence of conservation in the face of continuing threats.

About SNAP: SNAP is the one non-profit, professional society serving the needs of association publishers and communications professionals. Areas of expertise include: fostering effective relationships among publishers, communications professionals, and industry providers; developing and maintaining high editorial and advertising standards through our Excel Awards and Publications Review Program; providing members with the latest industry movements through bi-annual meetings, Lunch & Learn Seminars, the SNAP listserve, and Association Publishing, our bimonthly magazine; and, connecting professionals with career opportunities in association publishing through our Career Center.